DNCDisruption08.org

This E-News Flash will be relatively short since we will be sending out a new flash soon with important information on events, speakers, and bands. Enjoy, get involved, and remember “Do It In Denver!”

Federal Trial
Self-Defense Training
Events, Speakers, Bands
Working Meetings and Sessions
Upcoming Trainings
Shirts, Donations, and Needs
Blast From The Past
1. Federal Trial
As many of you are aware, R-68’s Federal lawsuit concluded on Thursday of last week. We are currently waiting on Judge Krieger’s written ruling expected sometime this week. We are very proud of the R-68 members who were called upon to testify and for all of the hard work that was done by our awesome legal team. We received press across the nation, which assisted us in bringing the draconian measures being put in place, by the U.S. Secret Service and the Denver Police Department, to the rest of the country.

2. Self Defense Trainings
Gumm Mixed Martial Arts Gym has provided an incredible opportunity for supporters of R-68. There will be many counter-protesters who will be accompanying us at the convention. An ounce of preparation for the worst possible scenario is a valuable and strategic move to ensure your personal safety. Please plan on attending one or preferable more of these trainings listed below. If this schedule of training opportunities does not work for you, please contact Glenn at gspagnuolo@recreate68.org. RSVP to the same e-mail address to assist the Gumm’s with their preparation. If you would like more information about the Gumm MMA Gym you should visit their website at www.gummbjj.com. We are providing basic directions to their gym for your convenience. Also, we have been asked by some what to wear. Here is a suggestion from the Gumm’s: Any kind of athletic clothing will be fine but it is best to wear clothing that covers the body well and shorts or pants that have a tight waist or draw strings. We do not allow any shoes on the matt, so socks or bare feet are fine.

We have a water cooler, but do not provide cups, so a water bottle would be a good item to bring as well. Other than that, all they need to bring is themselves and any questions they might have!

Saturday, August 9 12 - 2 pm
Saturday, August 16 12 - 2 pm

There will be an additional training that will be combined with our day of trainings on Saturday, August 23.

Directions:
From either 6th Ave or Hwy 285 traveling towards the mountains from the Downtown Denver area.
On 6th Ave, travel West, or on Hwy 285 travel South to S. Kipling St.
Take a left (or South) on S. Kipling St.
Take S Kipling St to W. Stanford Ave. Note: W. Stanford Ave will be the stop light immediately following W. Quincy Ave.
At W. Stanford Ave, take a left at the light, and then an immediate right into the parking lot.
We are located in the Kipling Square Shopping Center next to the My Mart gas station and the Texaco Xpress Lube oil change station.

Our sign is red with white writing that says: “Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Thai Kickboxing”.

4550 S. Kipling St #5
Denver, CO 80127
303-358-7152

3. Events, Speakers, Bands
Many of our events and bands have been announced already. Our next E-News Flash coming out later this week will be dedicated to the announcement of our historic line-up of dynamic speakers. In addition, the announcement of some of our special performers and a recap of our schedule of R-68 organized events and the others that we support with resources and logistics will be included.

4. Working Meetings and Sessions
We have less than three weeks to go and there is still work to be done. Please plan on attending our regular working meetings on Thursday nights in Lincoln Park. Some of us are having what we refer to as working sessions on Monday nights at the courtyard in front of the Tattered bookstore on Colfax.

Organizing Meeting:
Thursdays at 6:30pm
Lincoln Park (in front of the capitol building) at the Veterans Memorial

Working Sessions:
Mondays at 6:30pm
Courtyard outside of the Tattered Cover bookstore on Colfax

5. Upcoming Trainings
In addition to our self-defense trainings, there are a number of other opportunities to obtain skills necessary to assist in this historic venture.

Legal Observing and Know Your Rights Trainings:

Legal Observer Training
When: Tuesday, August 5th 5-7 p.m.
Where: American Friend’s Service Committee
901 W 14th Ave # 7
Denver, CO 80204.

Legal Observer Training
When: Wednesday, August 6th, 7-8:30 p.m.
Venue: SEIU Service Employees International Union
2525 W. Alameda Ave.
Denver, CO 80219

Legal Observer Training
When: Saturday, August 9th, 2-4 p.m.
Where: The People’s Law Project Office
206 E. 13th Avenue
Denver, CO 80203

Legal Observer Training presented by Copwatch
When: Thursday, August 14th, 2008.
Time: TBA
Where: For more details contact Evan 303.831.8695

Training Day– Know Your Rights, Legal Observing, and more!
When: Thursday, August 21st, noon-8 p.m.
Where: University of Colorado-Boulder
Humanities Building, Room 250
Intersection of Macky Drive and Pleasant Street
Boulder, CO

Legal Observer Training
When: Friday, August 22nd, 2-4 p.m.
Where: The Mercury Café
2199 California St
Denver, CO 80205

There will be a full day of trainings on Saturday August 23. The schedule will be available in the next E-News Flash.

6. Shirts, Donations, and Needs
Check out our new DNC T-shirts! Be the first in your affinity group to own one of these awesome shirts. Consider forming an R-68 T-shirt bloc, much more fashionable than a black bloc. All proceeds from the sale of these must have T-shirts will go to aid R-68 with the funding of this event. For a look at the design and information on the newest protest garb put out by R-68, go to:
http://www.recreate68.com/?p=94

Food Not Bombs will be serving free meals to the community at the Festival of Democracy throughout the week. The meals will be for free, but we need you all to assist them by bringing a reusable fork, plate and cup to minimize our impact on the environment. Additionally, they need your help with food. Below is a list of food you can donate. Much of the canned food can be found on sale for as little as ten cents. Not a bad deal for a weeks worth of free meals. All food donations can be brought to our working meetings at the Gypsy House café on Thursdays. If you cannot make it or are willing to donate a large quantity of food, you can contact us at food@recreate68.org for other arrangements. Please consider running a food drive in your community to aid us in this project.
Food Needs:
Rice, Beans, Oats, Flour, Oil, Sugar, Canned Tomatoes
Water, Coffee, Tea, Hot Cocoa
Water coolers
Camping Stoves
Plates, Cups, Spoons, Plastic ware, Picnic Plates, Plastics (light reusable plastic or paper)

R-68 has taken the lead in providing free housing, food, music, trainings, and more. We are bringing in numerous speakers from oppressed communities from across the country. We really need everyone to pitch-in and assist us in this endeavor. Consider skipping your morning coffee or riding your bike to work instead of taking your vehicle. With the money you saved, please mail it as a donation to R-68. None of us are paid staff and all funds will be put into the week worth of activities that are being designed to aid you in having a voice in the direction that the country takes in the future. To donate you can obtain information at:
http://recreate68.com/?page_id=42

7. Blast From The Past
As always, we bring you a voice from the past to inspire you for the future.

You North Amerikans are very lucky. You live in the middle of the beast.
You are fighting the most important fight of all, in the center of the battle.
If I had my wish, I would go back with you to North Amerika to fight there.
I envy you.
- Che Guevara

Music and Noise // Sunday, August 24th // DNC, Denver Colorado!

Calling all mobile musicians, marching bands, and folks who want to make noise and reclaim the streets of Denver during the Democratic National Convention–we need you!

On the first day of action during the DNC, we’ll be reclaiming the streets from the police and corporate occupation of Denver.  Our celebration in and of the streets will be one of music and noise and so we are inviting mobile musicians, insurrectionary marching bands, radical cheerleaders, and all others who want to make the streets a joyous, vibrant space to come to Denver and add your voice, noise, and music to our collective expression of autonomy and freedom from occupation.

If drums, horns, or strings aren’t your style, come with pots, pans, sticks, and boom boxes to lend your hand in the noise.  We’ll demonstrate that real transformation does not come from the parties of the ruling class inside convention centers but from the people and in the streets!

Get a hold of the Urban Reclamation Front of Unconventional Denver (urfud@hushmail.com) and let us know if you’ll be arriving with a band, an instrument, a boom box, or pots and pans.  We’ll have space to store noise devices and tools of clamor if you arrive early or are able to bring more than you’ll need for yourself to share with comrades.  Get your noise ready and we’ll see each other in the streets!

For revolution….for music….for noise!
–urf ud

Before the steps of City Hall, anarchists with Unconventional Denver made an uncanny move, offering to call off all protests if the City of Denver granted one simple request- take the $50 million security budget intended to brutalize and repress free speech and instead invest it in the local communities of Denver. 

7.28.08: Complete Text of Unconventional Denver Statement

Unconventional Denver, an anarchist and anti-authoritarian group organizing direct action to confront the Democratic National Convention this August, is here today on the steps of the City and County Building to make an offer. We are here to make clear our vision of a world where the needs of people and the earth guide our decisions and where democracy is direct and face to face.  The heavily policed, corporate funded political spectacle coming to Denver at the end of August is yet another jarring example of how the government and its wealthy backers’ priorities are exactly the opposite.

We are here however, to give the City of Denver, Federal Government, and the DNC a chance to prove us wrong.

In a few minutes, the City Council of Denver will be meeting in the building behind us to discuss an emergency ordinance aimed at restricting what demonstrators can carry during the DNC and beyond.  The peddlers of these enhanced police powers continue to insist that people looking to exercise free speech and stand up against a corrupt system will allegedly be carrying disgusting weapons such as “super soakers filled with urine.”

Anyone who takes a close look at the recent history of mass street protests in this country knows that there is no record of this ever happening. In fact, if you were to look back on protests, including those in Denver itself, you would not see images of fecal covered protesters terrorizing the public.  What you would see instead are police forces again and again acting above their own laws.  Police minimize and marginalize free speech through protest pens, unnecessary force and unjustified arrests, and through ridiculous, unnecessary ordinances such as the one before council today.  Major court cases have come from New York, Seattle, Miami, Washington D.C. and other cities where the courts have found that the police intentionally brutalize protesters to silence their dissent and have been forced to pay out millions in damages and compensation to protesters they have systematically targeted.  This exemplifes that the violence and lawlessness was not coming from protesters, but in fact the government itself.

And so in a way, local government officials and the corporate media are right about the coming violence that will descend on Denver. It is true that there is a group mobilizing forces from across the country and amassing exotic weapons they refuse to disclose to the public. They have a track record of inflicting violence on unarmed civilians and illegally spying on citizens working towards positive change. They even dress in black- they are the Denver Police and the various local, state and federal forces that will be transforming Denver into a miniature version of the occupation of Iraq when the DNC comes to town.

This invasion has been given one of the largest single allotments of any department in Denver history.  The DNC comes to Denver with a $50 million dollars security budget — money that was tacked on to funding for the War in Iraq and approved by the Democrats.  And like the war abroad, the militarization of Denver comes at an equally high cost.  Imagine the Denver Public Schools receiving $50 million dollars for a week-long event.  That money alone would be enough to re-open six of the schools closed last year.  Or what if that money were invested in the healthcare program? It would provide 18,986 uninsured children with a year’s worth of healthcare they deserve.  This would be a small but important step towards taking care of the more than 160,000 children in the Denver area without healthcare coverage.  And yet, as anarchists, we know that this will never happen.  Addressing the real needs of the people is not in the interest of the government or its wealthy backers.

There will be no democracy within the DNC.  There will be no one sincerely addressing the grave problems the average person in the United States faces on a daily basis. There will only be a scripted political performance guarded by walls of heavily armed riot police as party insiders and corporate lobbyists live it up behind closed doors.

We, Unconventional Denver, have a different vision of what democracy is.  We see democracy as direct; where decisions are made by those most affected, not those with the most money; where democracy penetrates every aspect of our lives; where the workers rather than CEOs decide how their workplace should look; where instead of incarcerating more people than any other country, we meet the needs of our children and raise them in loving communities.  We seek a world where the land is seen for what it is, the source of life, not a piece of property to be exploited for profit.  The government will never bring these visions to fruition; in fact it stands in the way of it.  It will take us as people, organizing on a grassroots level to make the change we wish to see.

This is why we are taking to the streets. Enough is enough. This government does not care about meeting people’s needs. AT&T, Lockheed Martin, Coca Cola- Obama will serve the same big money that all politicians end up serving. As anarchists working towards dismantling this corrupt political system of violence and corporate greed, we are not going to allow this spectacle to go uninterrupted-

unless the City of Denver, the Federal Government and the Democratic Party can prove us wrong.

We have watched Obama ride a wave of political momentum based on a vague rhetoric of hope and change all the way here to Denver. We however, are demanding that real change be implemented immediately. If the Democrats want to show they are sincere and are going to depart from the sad state of politics in this country then they should start immediately…. and use the convention as an example.

So we come here today with this offer:
If the Democrats and their allies in the city government of Denver can show their good faith … can show they are immediately working for real positive change by using their 50 million dollar federal grant for something better than crushing democracy then we will change our plans. If they are willing to do this, then Unconventional Denver and hundreds of anarchists coming to town will sit this one out.   We Anarchists are willing to call off all of our protests, if the democrats are willing to call off their occupation of Denver and re-invest their police budget toward real community security.

New elementary schools; healthcare for the uninsured; providing clean, renewable energy to the city- 50 million dollars could do all of this.  If this money is used to concretely demonstrate that meeting people’s needs will be the top priority of the Democratic Party and the City of Denver instead of protecting the robber barons of today, we will spend the last week of August with our friends and family continuing our work of furthering our communities instead of direct action confronting the Democratic National Convention.

Otherwise…. we’ll see you in the streets.

The Queen City is heating up as anarchists, witches, clowns, Iraq vets, artists, SDSers, radical queers, immigrants, Earth First!ers, rebel Democrats, parents, precarious workers and others are making it known that, come August, the Democrats’ attempt at co-opting our energies and power will fall short as we make it clear that change will come from below not above, in the streets and not in their stadiums.

 Here’s the latest call to action from Unconventional Denver to help maximize our impact this August.

sunday the 24th { RECLAIM THE STREETS. RESIST MILITARIZATION}
Late Afternoon: After the 10:00am Recreate 68 anti-war march and the early afternoon Alliance for Real Democracy Funk the War celebration, a raging party in resistance to the militarized occupation of Denver and the world will reclaim public space and spread the festivities onto the streets. Be ready to take the rowdy celebration to the doorsteps of delegate hotels etc.

monday the 25th { NO BUSINESS AS USUAL}
Evening: Meet at the Civic Center at 6pm to join the anticapitalist march or participate in organized and decentralized actions that will actively disrupt the capitalist corruption and cronyism of the two party system by targeting specific fundraisers, delegate parties and corporations backing the DNC. come ready for quick decentralized actions spanning the downtown area at a variety of risk levels.

tuesday the 26th { CONFRONT THE SPECTACLE}
Afternoon: As delegates are arriving at the Pepsi Center, snake marches will converge on the entrances through the fence of the no-protest zone in order to create spaces for different levels of delegate movement disruption. Flying squads will assist the disruption and create distractions as we bring their party to a halt.

wednesday the 27th { ECO ACTIONS AND ALTERNATIVES}
All day: direct action against ecological destruction. We will create solutions to global warming without the politicians by shutting down sources of greenhouse gas emissions and corporations who destroy the earth (and fund the Democrats). we will also engage in creative resistance outlining solutions and alternatives; bike bloc! car free zones! guerrilla gardening!

thursday the 28th { NO BORDERS. NO ONE IS ILLEGAL}
Morning: Join this national mobilization for immigrants rights and help us draw connections between the struggles of immigrant communities and the struggle against global capitalism. Meet at Rude Park at 10:30am. This will be a low-risk event safe for all people regardless of immigration status. so play nice.
E X A C T  T I M E S  A N D  L O C AT I O N S  T B A .
S TAY  T U N E D  F O R  M O R E  I N F O
www.dncdisruption08.org

Calling on you radical queermos, trannies, and allies!

This friday, the forces assimilationist gay capitalism are throwing themselves
a little party. The Stonewall Democrats’ meet-n-greet is bound to be a
blast for mainstreamers, assimilationists, corporate sponsors and all
the affluent politicos who can afford the ticket price.

Bash Back! Colorado has something else in mind. Join us and come on
out to crash the Stonewall Dem’s party.

when: THIS Friday!! 25 July, 6pm
where:   parking lot at Marczyk Fine Foods‎, 770 E 17th Ave
        we’ll head over to the party from there
why:  for liberation not state sanction!

bring some pink & some black & some noise makers & some banners.

after we’ve had our fun, we’ll adjourn to an undisclosed location and
further strategize how to continue confronting the dems and the
capitalists during the DNC.

rawr,
bash back! colorado

DENVER, CO – Colorado and National immigrant justice groups announced final plans for the DNC National Mobilization for Just and Humane Immigration Reform. The march will take place on Thursday, August 28th, commencing at 9am from Rudy Park (2855 W. Howard Pl.), with a Colfax route to a rally at Lincoln Park (W. 12th Ave and Mariposa St.). The national mobilization will provide a venue for immigrants and their allies to demonstrate their decree for just and fair reform for our country’s broken immigration system.  Immigrants and other justice-minded Americans will come together to denounce anti immigrant rhetoric and enforcement only policies and turn the tide towards “just and humane solutions.” The We Are America-DNC is united around four principles: 

• Just and fair immigration reform that will stop the criminalization of immigrant people;
• Immigrant student rights, embodied in the DREAM Act and in-state tuition;
• Tearing down the border walls to ensure that there are no more deaths in the desert; and
• An end to the ICE raids, to protect children and keep all families together. 

“I am marching to remind ALL my elected officials that they must listen to the voices of immigrant families who have been impacted by divisive legislation at the local, state, and federal level,” says Ricardo Martinez, Co Director of Padres y Jovenes Unidos.  “Barack Obama, the Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee, has said that it’s time for a new type of politics in America.  It’s time for all Democrats to stand up and ensure justice for immigrants and their families.” ### 
We Are America-DNC Conveners (as of 7/21): Centro HumanitarioChicano Studies @ Metro State CollegeColoradans For Immigrant Rights-of AFSCColorado Immigrant Rights Coalition Escuela Tlatelolco   Fair Immigration Reform MovementMarch 25th Coalition MEChA de ColorAztlan National Alliance for Human Rights NEWSEDPadres y Jovenes Unidos

Less than two weeks after Congress granted retroactive immunity to telecoms involved in the Bush spy program, it’s been learned AT&T will be emblazoned on every delegate’s bag at the Democratic National Convention. Like Comcast, Motorola, Coca-Cola, Google and a host of other corporate sponsors, the telecom giant has donated over a million dollars to the DNC in return for prominent display space and access to elected officials. But none of these companies have fully disclosed their projected contributions to the convention, according to a new report from the Campaign Finance Institute.

We speak with the group’s associate director for policy, Steve Weissman. [includes rush transcript]

Guests:

Stephen Weissman, Associate Director for Policy at the Campaign Finance Institute.

Glenn Greenwald, constitutional law attorney and political and legal blogger for Salon.com. He is the author of three books. His latest is Great American Hypocrites: Toppling the Big Myths of Republican Politics.

• CFI Analysis of Convention Corporate and Other Donors
• Glenn Greenwald’s “Unclaimed Territory”
• “The AT&T Convention in Denver”

AMY GOODMAN: It’s been less than two weeks since the Senate voted to grant immunity to phone companies involved in the Bush administration’s secret domestic surveillance program. Now, some of these same telecom companies, including AT&T and Comcast, are focusing their attention on advertising at the upcoming Democratic National Convention.

AT&T is the official wireless provider at the convention. Like Comcast, Motorola, Coca-Cola, Google and a host of other corporate sponsors, the telecom giant has donated over a million dollars to the DNC in return for prominent display space and access to elected officials. But none of these companies have fully disclosed their projected contributions to the convention, this according to a new report from the Campaign Finance Institute. Out of a reported 146 organizational and corporate donors to both the Democratic and Republican conventions, only thirty-one have disclosed information about their contributions, the report says.

We’re joined now from Houston by Steve Weissman. He’s associate director for policy at the Campaign Finance Institute. We’re also joined on the telephone by Glenn Greenwald, a constitutional law attorney and political and legal blogger for Salon.com. He joins us on the phone from Brazil. We welcome you both to Democracy Now!

Steve Weissman, let’s begin with you. Can you talk about who gives money to the conventions and how we know how much they give? What are the rules?

STEPHEN WEISSMAN: Well, the money is given not to the convention specifically, but to the host committee for the convention, but the host committee for the convention’s fundraisers are people from the party that’s holding the convention, so it’s like giving the money directly to the party.

And what we know about them before the convention is just whatever the host committees feel like disclosing. There are no requirements to disclose the donors and the amounts that they are giving. And, in fact, neither of the host committees this year for either convention, unlike past years, have chosen to disclose officially the amounts of money that they’re getting. And the amounts are very large, because, combined, private money for support of the two conventions this year will exceed $112 million. So, all we know at this point is unofficially, or some companies have, you know, decided to release this information voluntarily.

AMY GOODMAN: Now, in terms of individual contributing, there are caps set. In terms of these corporate contributions, why are they considered in a different category?

STEPHEN WEISSMAN: Because there’s a pleasant fiction that’s been created, that the corporations are really just giving the money to promote the convention city, even though at least half the money is not going to come from corporations who are even headquartered in that state. And this fiction was created in the 1990s around the same time that unlimited soft money began to flow to the political parties. The Federal Election Commission has certified that this is the motivation for giving. It recertified it in 2003.

It’s totally prohibited to give unlimited contributions to political parties. It’s totally prohibited for a corporation or a union to just go right into its treasury and give money to political parties. Yet, under an exemption that was created by the Federal Election Commission, which essentially is made up of representatives of the two major parties, all of this money can be given if it’s given through a host committee under the pretense that it’s merely to promote the convention city.

And we’ve shown in our reports that the companies that are supporting these two conventions have already—are companies that have already spent, in the last—since the last presidential election, $1.1 billion lobbying the federal government. So, even if some of them have in part a kind of civic booster notion, obviously these people are very concerned with federal legislation, and in return for this money—we could discuss this, I hope we do—the parties, through the host committees, offer access to top politicians, to the President, the future president, Vice President, cabinet officials, senators, congressmen. They promise these companies who are giving that they will be able to not only get close to these people by hosting receptions, by access to VIP areas, but they’ll actually have meetings with them.

AMY GOODMAN: Explain more fully how it works and which are the corporations you’ve identified that have given this kind of money. On the one hand, you’re talking about lobbying in general, and then they give a separate amount of money, which some could call lobbying, by giving it to the convention.

STEPHEN WEISSMAN: That’s right. By giving it to these host committees, they assure themselves of gratitude from the national party, from the presidential candidate, because what is a convention except the biggest and longest ad of the presidential election? And to have that speech come off well, to have the lighting and the rigging and all of the sound and the Broadway producers who do it, to have the production and the setting look just right, to have specially built podiums and so forth, that will earn gratitude.

Now, we’ve seen that there are 146 companies that are giving, of which nearly forty are giving to both conventions. And they are all the biggest companies you can imagine. The ones who voluntarily—and they deserve some praise for this—have at least said how much they’re giving include Qwest Communications, which is giving $6 million to each convention; Comcast, which pledged $5 million to the Democratic convention; we also have United Healthcare, which has released the amount of money they’re giving to the Republican convention, is clearly giving a million or more to both conventions; Xcel Energy, which has some big nuclear plants, which is giving money, over a million, to both conventions.

And if you go right down the list, whether it’s Lockheed giving to the Democrats or Safeway giving to the Democrats, whether Republicans are getting money from St. Jude, which produces medical devices, Medtronic is giving to both, AT&T, and so forth, this is where the big money is coming into the conventions. And often the press will focus on the fact that some of the same companies will have a party at the convention, invite members of Congress, but that party costs a lot less, and the whole national political party is less grateful for that than they are for the massive amounts of funding they’re getting to actually put on this big political ad.

AMY GOODMAN: Glenn Greenwald is joining Steve Weissman. Glenn Greenwald is on the phone right now, a constitutional law attorney, a political and legal blogger at Salon.com. You’ve written a number of pieces on this, among them “The AT&T Convention in Denver.” Can you talk about the significance of the welcome bags?

GLENN GREENWALD: Well, there was a bag that was designed by the convention and reported by a blogger who writes about the convention in Denver that was really just illustrative, more than anything else, of everything that Mr. Weissman was discussing. I mean, it has the Democratic National Committee convention logo on it, and then right underneath, very large, it has an AT&T logo. And that’s the bag that will be given to every delegate and member of the media who attends the convention.

And the reason why that’s just so symbolically interesting is because the Democrats in Congress just last month gave an extraordinary gift of telecom amnesty to most of the entire telecom industry, including AT&T and Comcast, in order to protect them from lawsuits and in a bill that was written by the telecom industry and their lobbyists. So, to turn around and see such a sort of tawdry expression of the very close relationship between the telecom industry and the Democrats, who had just given them an extraordinary gift, was, I thought, quite remarkable.

AMY GOODMAN: Do you feel like the Democrats—well, the Republicans, of course, wanted this. President Bush was pushing very hard for the immunity. This is retroactive immunity for the telecommunications companies involved with the spy scandal. But this was just a few weeks ago, less than two weeks ago, that this was pushed through by the Democrats. And of course, the big story, Barack Obama, the Democratic presidential candidate, who had said he would be involved in a filibuster against such granting of retroactive immunity, actually turned around and voted for it, saying that the bill was a compromise.

GLENN GREENWALD: Well, that’s exactly right. I mean, President Bush and the White House have been demanding amnesty for all sorts of lawbreakers involved in torture and rendition and spying programs for many years. But none of that would have happened had the Democratic leadership in the Congress, led by Jay Rockefeller in the Senate and Steny Hoyer, the House Majority Leader, the Democratic House Majority Leader in the House, not gotten together and negotiated a bill that immunized the entire telecom industry for any crimes that they have committed or any violations of the privacy rights of their customers for allowing government spying on their customers without warrants.

And as I indicated, Steny Hoyer and Jay Rockefeller, when they were drafting the bill, were actually negotiating directly with representatives of the telecom industry. They had hired an extraordinarily bipartisan cast of lobbyists, former Clinton officials like Jamie Gorelick and others, who was number two in the Justice Department at the Clinton administration. And they negotiated directly with the telecoms, and the telecoms would give them proposals for how they wanted the amnesty to read.

And in the meantime, privacy groups, like Electronic Frontier Foundation, and civil liberties groups, like the ACLU, and other citizen groups were frozen out of the process completely. The Democrats in Congress literally turned over the process to AT&T, Comcast and others, in order to write this extraordinary law to protect them from consequences for having broken our laws. And so, to read about how at the same time they’re funding to the tune of many, many millions of dollars the Democratic National Convention is just a very potent illustration of this sleazy process that drives our lawmaking process.

AMY GOODMAN: It’s interesting. A recent analysis showed Democratic Congress members who changed their vote to support the immunizing of telecom companies in the FISA bill have on average received thousands more from phone companies than those Democrats who voted consistently against immunity. Ninety-four Democrats voted against immunity as recently as March but changed their votes to support it. And according to MAPLight.org, these Democrats have received on average $8,000 in telecom contributions over the last three years. The 116 Democrats who remained opposed to immunity received on average $5,000.

GLENN GREENWALD: Right. There are so many levels of the way in which that telecom money and corporate money floods the Congress. I mean, you have direct campaign contributions. And that study that you just described is incredibly insightful about the process. And right before Jay Rockefeller in the Senate became the most vocal advocate for telecom amnesty, huge amounts of telecom money poured into his campaign coffers. And in fact Wired magazine did a study showing that, prior to that, he received virtually no money, and right as telecom amnesty became a big issue, all sorts of telecom executives and companies poured money into his coffers, had campaign parties for him, created this connection, this social and financial connection. And he then became their greatest advocate.

On top of that, you have millions and millions and millions of dollars, as Mr. Weissman described, in lobbying fees from these telecom industries. And then you have the fact that they fund so many of the party apparatus that there’s almost very little separation between the party leadership and the telecom industry. And you see that in terms of how the Democratic Congress behave. I mean, a majority of them voted against telecom amnesty in the House, but far more than enough of them in the House and in the Senate voted in favor of it. And as you say, the ones who did have very strong connections to the telecom industry, in terms of contributions and lobbying.

AMY GOODMAN: Steve Weissman of the Campaign Finance Institute, your response?

STEPHEN WEISSMAN: Well, this provokes the memory of what happened in 2004 when the Democrats were collecting money for their convention in Boston. One of the leading fundraisers was Senator Kennedy. And his major focus—or a major focus, not his—not the major focus, but a major emphasis, was on getting drug company money. And at the very same time that Senator Kennedy was soliciting money from the pharmaceutical companies, he softened his position on legislation dealing with Medicare prescription drugs prices. And that played a role in the eventual conference agreement between the House and the Senate on a bill that essentially did not allow the federal government to regulate the price of prescriptions.

Now, no drug company could have given Senator Kennedy the kind of money that he was collecting for the convention. No party could have asked the drug company for that money. So you can see, I think, the importance of the convention as fitting into—as Glenn was saying, it fits into a pattern where you have limited contributions the company executives can give, where they can guide through their PACs, where they can solicit limited contributions from their executives, lobbying money they’re spending, and then on top of it, every four years, the corporation can directly from its treasury—or the union, as the SEIU, for example, is doing at both conventions—can give unlimited funds to these parties, and therefore there could be obligations.

And some of the key fundraisers—another point that we tried to make in our studies—some of the key fundraisers are like bundlers, who bundle limited contributions. They are people who are going to receive the gratitude of people who benefit from their fundraising. And in Denver, Steve Farber, who is a key lawyer, a very prominent, very distinguished lawyer and a community activist, is also a partner in Brownstein Farber, one of the biggest lobbying firms in the United States and in Washington, D.C., and he’s been approaching his clients, whether they’re Google, whether United Healthcare, whether they’re Qwest, and asking them repeatedly for money for the convention. So he’s getting together all this money.

And we have the irony that we have a Democratic candidate, Senator Obama, who is not taking lobbyist money directly, who is not taking money from PACs that are guided by companies, but who is benefiting from the efforts of his own bundlers, but also someone like Steve Farber, who can bundle money legally—and there’s nothing wrong with what he’s doing, legally—from all of these corporate clients of his.

And another illustration, a final illustration, of the problems involved in this is, who’s the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States? It’s Henry Paulson. And what is the most prominent thing Henry Paulson had done for the Republican Party before he became Secretary of the Treasury? It was promising, pledging and apparently making good on his pledge to raise $5 million for the 2004 Republican convention.

AMY GOODMAN: How do you think, Steve Weissman, this should change? And also, on the issue of finding out who has given money, both to the Democratic and Republican conventions, when do we find out? At this point, you know something like, what, $26 million of the $112 million.

STEPHEN WEISSMAN: Right. We only know that voluntarily. Normally, when people pay money that goes into financing ads, like the presidential nominating conventions—because they are really ads—you find out fairly soon after the money is given, no more than three months afterwards. In this situation, with conventions, because of all the fictions created about host committees and not really political, we have a situation where you don’t find out anything ’til sixty days after the convention, which is practically after or just at about the moment of the presidential election. So there’s no opportunity to really know who’s funding. There’s no opportunity to give feedback to candidates about particular funders. You only find out officially sixty days after the election—after the convention, which is a form of election, and that’s at the very moment, virtually, people are voting.

The solution that we have advocated—“we” meaning the Campaign Finance Institute, which is a nonpartisan research group convened, a multi-partisan group of people and academics and good government people, and they kind of came to this solution—really was to go back to—well, to go back to the notion that the conventions may need a little more money than their federal grant, because they get a federal grant of $16 million each, but that this money should be limited, just like all the other contributions that are made, and that would mean that it was hard money, as they call it, rather than soft money.

So the solution that our task force favored and that we’re expressing—it was, as I say, a nonpartisan task force—is that the Congress pass a law, and it says no more soft money for these conventions, no corporate treasury, union treasury, no unlimited individual money, because there’s some of that in there, as well, individuals giving millions. Instead, the parties—let’s discard this host committee fiction—the parties can go out there and ask people to help the convention, but with the same limits where they’re asking people to help them normally. And that way, you would cut down on the soft money aspect, the most corrupting aspect, where a business can give millions of dollars to a convention.

AMY GOODMAN: Steve Weissman, I want to thank you very much for being with us, associate director for policy at the Campaign Finance Institute. Glenn Greenwald, you’ve also written about the attorney raising the money, Mr. Farber, in your blog.

GLENN GREENWALD: Right, absolutely. I mean, if you look at—again, he’s quite [inaudible]—I mean, if you look at how he functions, I mean, he is partners in his lobbying firm that Steve Weissman mentioned, one of the most influential lobbying firms, with a whole slew of highly influential Republicans, including the wife of Charlie Black, John McCain’s chief lobbyist/adviser and the former chairman of the Republican National Committee.

And so, what this is is it’s a very bipartisan corporate-political class that really functions without regard to things like ideological belief or political positions. Democrats, Republicans really don’t matter in this world. It’s a political and corporate class that is very insulated and has its own interests and ensures that those interests are served by the Congress, no matter which party is in control. And they write their own rules that apply only to them and to nobody else. And it’s really at the center of why Americans are so deeply dissatisfied with how our government functions.

AMY GOODMAN: Glenn Greenwald, we’re going to ask you to stay on the phone. We’re going to go to break. Constitutional law attorney, political and legal blogger for Salon.com. And when we come back, we’ll also be joined by Cass Sunstein. He is co-author of the book Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness. We’ll talk about that but also talk about some of the issues that we have just raised. Stay with us.

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When King George was looking down the jester stole his thorny crown with PR magic it soon will pass a crown now sits upon an ass. Now is the time to laugh and poke at all of those bewitched by “hope”. Come one come all with juggling balls and stilts to rise above their walls. Their crooked joke will not besiege for the lords will soon be on their knees…laughing

Send in the Clowns! CIRCA, the clandestine insurgent rebel clown army is gathering for the largest comedy act of the year– the DNC in Denver, Colorado, USA. Our first meet and greet will be held on August 19th, 5:30pm at the Mercury Cafe(2199 California, 22nd & California). For more information, questions, and or comments please type to: circadnc08@gmail.com.

Virginia Salazar (left) and Vicki Nash, members of CopWatch, survey the Food Not Bombs meal in Civic Center Park for police officers. (Photo/Naomi Zeveloff)

By Naomi Zeveloff 07/16/2008 256 Views –> –>

Though the city of Denver has urged charities that serve the homeless outdoors to move their operations inside, at least one group is defying that order. The Denver chapter of Food Not Bombs pledged to stay put for its Wednesday Civic Center Park meal, contending that the city’s Come On In program is meant to hide the homeless. Food Not Bombs, an international peace organization that serves meals to protesters, the homeless and natural disaster victims, has been serving in Denver for the past decade. And though the group says that Denver police have visited its weekly meals, the charity will keep feeding the hungry.

Volunteers with Food Not Bombs were involved in the city’s early discussions about ending homeless feedings in parks and public areas. In 2006 the city organized a group called the Public Feeding Coalition. Made up of so-called “feeders” like Food Not Bombs, employees with the city’s Department of Human Services and members of the Commission to End Homelessness, among others, the group discussed the best way to bring Denver’s outdoor charities — and the homeless they feed — inside. Once inside, city officials argued, the homeless would have better access to restrooms, sinks and social services. Indoor meals would also solve the issue of trash left behind in parks, which neighbors had complained about for years. Over the past year the resulting program, called Come On In, has persuaded 12 of the 17 outdoor charities to stop feeding in parks. The bulk of those groups, say city officials, have moved indoors. Yet Food Not Bombs opposed the program early on.

“The bottom line is that we are having a picnic in the park,” says Maria Rose, a volunteer who has been serving with Food Not Bombs for the past five years. The group, which is funded by private donations and proceeds from benefit concerts, provides food for around two dozen homeless people at each weekly meal. Volunteers clean up after each meal in a process that generates little debris, since they use reusable dishware. “We have been doing it for 10 years,” says Rose. “Maybe the eggshells will still be [on the park lawn after the meal], but the birds will eat those. We care about how the park looks, too.”

Rose and others consider the Come On In program a thinly veiled effort to get the homeless out of the parks before the Democratic National Convention. “It seems so obvious,” she says.

But Denver officials say that’s not the case. “Oh, God, no,” says Commander Deborah Dilley of the Denver Police Department’s District 6, which includes downtown and Civic Center Park. “It has nothing to do with the Democratic National Convention.”

Dilley acknowledges Food Not Bombs’ right to remain outdoors; the city decided not to pass an ordinance banning outdoor meals since nearly all the outdoor groups moved their operations when asked.

“Food Not Bombs, they will never feed indoors,” says Dilley. “They had frank and good conversations about why they would not feed indoors.” Volunteers with the organization say that the meal is an important ritual for those involved and that taking it indoors could isolate some homeless — especially the mentally ill,who are resistant to shelters.

Members of the group also say that the outdoor meals — which take place at 4 p.m. every Wednesday on the south end of Civic Center Park — have been regularly visited by law enforcement.

“I have seen an increase in policing and park rangers,” says Mackenzie Liman, a volunteer with Food Not Bombs. “People still venture out to get services. But there is a feeling that people are uncomfortable downtown.” She says that law enforcement has approached the Civic Center Park meal when it has grown particularly large. In Denver, groups with 25 or more people must receive a permit in order to eat in the park. But Civic Center Park is considered “nonpermittable,” according to Dilley, which means that large groups should not be eating in the park, period, unless it’s a major city event, like the Denver Pride Fest. Yet Dilley says that the police have not enforced that rule, since it would outlaw sack lunches for classes on field trips in addition to the Food Not Bombs meal. Dilley says that to her knowledge, the police have not ticketed Food Not Bombs. When the police do approach, Liman says that the group typically splits in half, with one half moving across the street to avoid questions about the size of the event.

One Food Not Bombs volunteer, Geylfling Forcewynd, says that police appear at the weekly meal and check to see if anyone eating has a warrant against him or her. Both she and Liman feel that Food Not Bombs is unfairly targeted by these police visits. “People have birthday parties in the parks. But if you share food with people who are homeless, you can expect to be visited,” says Liman. Food Not Bombs is particularly wary of government scrutiny; in 2004 the FBI penned a file on one Denver Food Not Bombs volunteer named Sarah Bardwell; she was also visited by six investigators just weeks before that year’s Republican National Convention in New York.

In the spring Food Not Bombs asked Denver’s CopWatch, a group promoting police accountability, to survey its meals. “They believed that once the camera was on that the harassment would stop,” says Vicki Nash, a CopWatch volunteer who monitored last week’s Civic Center Park feeding wearing a yellow vest and a camera around her neck.

Dilley says that CopWatch’s presence won’t deter her officers from approaching anyone. But Liman contends that the police visits have indeed diminished in recent months.

Even so, she says she is still concerned about the greater implications of the Come On In program. “The most upsetting part is this attitude that it is OK to push [homeless] people away in order to do something that everyone will eventually get accustomed to. The people who make the most sacrifices don’t have the opportunity to be heard.”

This is Part Three of a three-part series on the growing controversy between city officials and homeless service programs ahead of the Democratic National Convention.

Read Part One: Denver rids parks of homeless meals; charity says DNC to blame.

And Part Two:Denver’s push to end outdoor homeless meals may isolate some, advocates say

After long hours in the unconventional editing epicenter, after even longer hours in the unconventional graphic design dungeon, a joint effort between multiple UA teams has finally finished. The third unconventional action newspaper, following “Unconventional Strategies” and “False Hope vs. Real Change,” is now available.

Unconventional Strategies 2.0 is a how-to guide for the disruption and subversion of this year’s electoral spectacle. It contains the most up-to-date strategy information, maps, schedules of events, contact information, and advice on plugging into the counter-convention infrastructure. We are especially proud of the new 7-sector map of downtown St. Paul, which makes use of likely RNC delegate bus routes and was assembled by a professional radical cartographer.

Because the conventions are less than 2 months away, UA publishing groups will not be using a professional printer to make a 15-30,000 print-run, as was done with previous papers. This one will have to be done the old-fashioned way, by printing them off the internet and copying it yourselves. Read-only and print versions of the paper can be found in the downloads section of both www.unconventionalaction.org and www.dncdisruption08.org.

 On a related note, several new beautiful posters have been added to this site, and an 11×17 version of the new St. Paul sector map should be up shortly. There are also still many bundles of the False Hope vs. Real Change paper available for free, which can be ordered at falsehopeorrealchange@riseup.net . With less of a focus on the conventions and more attention paid to the anarchist case against capitalism and electoral politics, this paper is be an excellent outreach tool for those unable to make it to the conventions.

Unconventional Strategies 2 (readable)
Unconventional Strategies 2 (printable)

A, Anti, Anti-Capitalista Poster
Everything for Everyone Poster
Obama Won’t Get the Cops Off the Block Poster

National Day of Action against Electoral Politics - August 10th

In order to build momentum towards the Democratic and Republican National Conventions, Unconventional Denver, the RNC Welcoming Committee, and various Unconventional Action groups from across the country are calling on anarchists nationwide to mobilize against the spectacle of electoral politics on August 10th.

We will use the tenth of August to build momentum and make it clear that we are not against one party or the other, but the totality of capitalism and its protector, the state.

A few ideas include: actions targeting party headquarters, blockading recruitment centers, dropping banners, holding teach-ins, wheatpasting anti-DNC/RNC posters, doing a radical filmshowing, holding a benefit for local organizers in Denver and the Twin Cities, protesting a corporate donor to the conventions, etc.

Reportbacks from actions can be posted at www.unconventionalaction.org

Good Luck! Be creative, be militant, and be fearless!

Article Last Updated: 07/16/2008 08:26:04 PM MDT

if(requestedWidth > 0){ document.getElementById(\\'articleViewerGroup\\').style.width = requestedWidth + "px"; document.getElementById(\\'articleViewerGroup\\').style.margin = "0px 0px 10px 10px"; } A large section of two main thoroughfares through the city — Speer Boulevard and Auraria Parkway — will be closed through most of the week of the Democratic National Convention, the mayor’s office announced this morning.

“We have worked very hard to ensure that downtown residents and workers can get around and access their buildings with ease during the Democratic National Convention,” Mayor John Hickenlooper said in a statement.

DENVER’S INDEPENDENT VIDEO AND RADIO HUB DURING DNC

(Denver- June 24, 2008) The Colorado Independent Media Center, together with KGNU, Denver Open Media, and MicroBusiness Development, is announcing their plans for media access and services before and during the 2008 Democratic National Convention.

LOCAL CABLE TV and WEBSTREAMING
Denver Open Media will be opening its channels and webstreaming to the entire community during the DNC. DOM is temporarily waiving annual membership fee is required to cablecast content on Denver’s local access channels, 56, 57, and 219. For the week of the DNC every VOICE can be heard in Denver and throughout the world via the internet!

Denver Open Media will also be broadcasting live from our studios at 700 Kalamath following each day of the convention, from 5-9pm, allowing any independent journalist to drop-in and share photos, video and audio recordings, and in-person accounts of the day live on TV. DOM will also have production, editing, and uploading resources available from 1-10pm for Indymedia producers.

LOCAL RADIO LIVE
In addition, KGNU and Denver Open Media will be announcing special access to their video and radio resources for visiting independent media producers interested in covering the DNC, with live TV, Radio, and internet broadcasts. KGNU will be broadcasting live on the radio from 6-10pm from their Denver facility at 700 Kalamath, with drop-in interview slots open from 6-7pm daily.

COMPUTER ACCESS
The Colorado Independent Media Center will be establishing a computer lab for independent video and radio journalists in the MicroBusiness Development building at 700 Kalamath Street, with space and computers donated by MicroBusiness Development and Community Computer Connection. From August 19th to August 30th, this facility will be open weekdays from 9:30am to 9:30pm and weekends from 11am-6pm.

In order to access these resources, independent journalists, (v)bloggers or videographers will need to register with the Colorado IMC at Free Speech TV, 2900 Welton Street Monday-Friday from 9am to 6pm or on-line at COIMC.org.

About Deproduction
Deproduction is a Denver non-profit production group that exists to put the power of the media into the hands of the community by providing production services and media education to individuals and community-focused organizations. Video production, post-production, studio production, and media education are among the services that Deproduction provides. Deproduction also manages the city of Denver’s public access television station, Denver Open Media (http://www.denveropenmedia.org). For more information, visit Deproduction’s website at http://www.deproduction.org.

About KGNU
KGNU is the independent, noncommercial, community radio station for Boulder, Denver and beyond. We are community-powered. Volunteers produce, host, report, DJ, administer and govern the station. We broadcasts 18-20 hours of locally produced programming per day. We provide hands-on training for volunteers. - We empower you to be the media. – For more information about KGNU visit our website: http://www.kgnu.org/

About Micro Business Development
Micro Business Development is a Denver-based not-for-profit organization dedicated to building a vibrant economy by offering microfinancing and business skill development to help people with limited resources become successful business owners. For more information about MBD, visit our website: http://www.microbusiness.org/

So, you’re coming to Denver for the DNC. Welcome! Before you come to Denver, the Colorado Street Medics want to bring some important things to your attention.
Traveling to Denver, the well known “Mile High City”, will be an increase in elevation for many of the people traveling from other states. In order to make the most of your journey to Denver it is important to understand the effects of altitude on your well being.
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Have you seen our films? Been to YOUR festival? www.visualizefilmfest.org. This November baby!

BENEFIT SHOW AT THE HI-DIVE, JULY 23, WEDNESDAY. $6.00, DOORS 8PM. 7 SOUTH BROADWAY.
Three kick ass bands: Radical Knitting Circle, the wonder music of Pleistocene and the amazing Asphodel. This is one of the FEW benefits being organized in Denver this summer that supports the DNC protests AND that will be tons of fun AND that will be a place to relax, chat, drink and listen to good music from political local bands.

xxoo Visualized

Alright fellow Denverites. It is now or never. Email me at planetofslums@gmail.com to offer ANY place for our fellow resisters across the country to crash, or else they’ll be taking up the spaces of the homeless, and we don’t want the homeless to be shipped out like ol’ Hickenlooper would prefer.

Recreate 68 is screening films every Tuesday in July at Hooked on Colfax, 3215 E. Colfax at 7pm. There are 3 more weeks of films.
Holy Shit! If you are going to come to ONE film, come see WETBACK.
Donations expected!!! Thanks.
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Hello Friends of Free Speech,

**Note this is the first of many important event announcements you will receive regarding the DNC-People’s Law Project’s work to secure free speech rights at the upcoming DNC.  Note next week’s training is geared towards attorneys.  Please help support our work by donating at
www.dnc-plp.org**

IMPORTANT EVENT NEXT WEEK (7/18)

The People’s Law Project, the CO Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild, and the Colorado Criminal Defense Bar are co-sponsoring the CLE program “Defending Dissent” - a CLE designed to train attorneys interested in representing social justice protesters at the DNC. The morning program includes a discussion of pending ACLU litigation, municipal and county court criminal defense procedure, and substantive training related to preparing attorneys to represent pro bono clients in criminal defense cases.
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By illvox.org

In August and September 2008, the two major parties will hold nomination convergences for their presidential candidates. These celebrations will also draw spirited mass demonstrations against such crass spectacles of greed and militarism. Though some may protest for the thrill of action, or so the mainstream media tells it, the larger context of protests is Republicans’ advocacy of and Democrats’ complicity with war, repression and white supremacy.
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On August 24-28, the ruling elite and their defenders will converge in Denver Colorado, in an attempt to recuperate the gains of global social movements and produce another myth of progress. Lip service to global warming, the economic crisis and the war will endow them with the magic to spread amnesia across the hearts and minds of North America. In an ironic destruction of illusions, those who manage statecraft will make material the wet dreams of the politicians that haunt such movements—pitting anti-racist struggles and feminism against eachother in a battle for political power. Behind the closed doors of the Pepsi Center, history will continue—and as predicted, it will be banal and terrifying.
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